Now a lot of people are saying that in this years FM Manchester United are on of the strongest teams, I agree, they have good squad, pacey forwards(I actually love it when Ibrakadabra is playing, Rashford can wreck havoc), good dynamos in midfield, quality FB's(quality for what Mumu does) the only "weak" area is CB's, and behind CB's is a octopus with 16 hands who keeps line in check, his name is De Gea....
A lot of people face them in their saves and they feel like they hit a brick wall, when I posted tactic you people started asking which tactic you used home? which did you use away? the answer: the same one tactic.
How?
United plays a very distinct style of football, in mine save "The Special one" uses 4123DM WIDE, same formation as I use, now every formation can counter any formation provided you know what to do, this is an example how I tweaked mine system to counter Manchester and their threats....
Manchester play with 4 flat back line which uses FB CB CB FB all on Def duties, they have a 3 man mid like I do and they have 3 man upfront, now Manchester plays direct style of football, their front players and their 3 mid players press hard, not just hard, its ultimate pressing while their back four sits deep and doesn't press at all, the beauty of it is its almost impenetrable, well "almost"...
What did I do to counter their style of play using min system?
I added Pass into space shout, switched WB(A) to WB(S) and removed "Stay Wider" PI from mine AML, why?
Pass into space combined with roam from position will ensure mine build up play avoids their high press, with players moving around a lot more it will ensure a pass option at all times, pass into space encourages mine players to use those created gaps and pass into them for a roaming player.
WB role switch: WB(A) is aggressive role, I'm perfectly fine with that, but, when playing vs this MU squad, with pacey front(well except Isco he is other sort of devil), this front 3 they lined up is perfectly said insane for direct play, Rashford and Martial are speedy demons, their mid and Isco are all capable to launch deep counter passes, so for defensive stability I used WB(S) role to ensure mine player won't maraud forward, he will instead pick when he comes, if he was on attack he would attack as soon as we get the ball, but what if mine transition fails? I'm left exposed down that flank and Martial is there, with his pace and Rashford joining him trough middle I'm done for, so role change is to prevent counter chance if mine transition fails.
Last thing I changed was removing Stay wider PI from Alexis, the reason?
Man Utd plays high press and forces mine midfield players to constantly look for a pass and to roam around so they make themselves open for that pass, if Alexis was wider he wouldn't be there to help the midfielders, and considering their back 4 doesn't close down he won't be able to stretch their defense as planed by tactic, so I made him come closer and help that midfield battle by stretching their high press and making ping tik tak options availible to mine players in mine middle.
The result?
We won... we pounded them so hard(and on top of it in the FINAL) that Mourinho didn't even do his trash talk after the game.
so how did the goals come?
What's the weird thing? these goals, only 1 of them counted as CCC mine other 3 CCC's were misses, 1 was Alexis penalty miss the others are:
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again golden zone pass at work, notice the no 10(Ozil movement) he gets a pass from 14, lays it to no 11 who does one two pass with him and he finds himself in assist position which he uses to pass to Dybala(who misses)
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In this situation we have Ozil(10) to Dybala (21) making a pass to Cook(8) who plays in Ozil again who picks dybalas run who finds Ramseys(11) and again unlocks the golden zone with that ball(Ramsey missed no one died)
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Mine play for most of the game was exactly where I wanted it, in front of their 16m box
the zone in mine half shows how hard they press, it takes a lot of time to take the ball out sometimes when utd press that hard
So those are the changes I made for mine Utd game using same tactic I provided you guys here, never think of a tactic as of something complete, improvise, adapt, overcome.
what changes could I have implemented more? I could have gone for wider play, that way their players would need to close a lot more ground to cover mine passes and in combination of above used changes it could have had wrecking effect, on other side that would make mine players far apart and if one is marked and I have no pass option I'm done for, that's 50/50 risk on that instruction.
Other option was to employ low block and force them to do what I'm doing and do what they are ding, I could have went complete low block, stand off the opposition do a deep like and wait for counter opportunities(I hate the camp styles so a no go for me)
basically that's one of many examples howto counter specific top teams, this years AI amazes me, this tactic MUMU uses in UTD is insanely good
They are 2nd on table they have only 21 goals conceded and 3 of those were by me(it was a different game, a home one which didn't need change since they went in more carefully) they are good and with more players coming in they will be mine main rivals trough mine save, I'm so thrilled to see AI making those tactics just to counter your style of play its insanely fun
Here is a .PKM(the match vs UTD) so you can see how it all played out for yourself
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Next up is Tottenham match which was also a really good one, that's the next one I'll be covering.
PS: their goal, was a long shot(I hate conceding those)
